Death, dying and caring: exploring the student nurse experience of palliative and end-of-life education.

Background: Undergraduate education and training are fundamental in preparing student nurses for working in palliative and end-of-life care.

Aim: This article explores the experiences of student nurses in their palliative and end-of-life undergraduate nurse education.

Methodology: Sandelowski and Barroso's (2007) framework for undertaking a metasynthesis was used.

Documentation of antipsychotic-related adverse drug reactions: An educational intervention.

Background: Antipsychotic agents are associated with harmful adverse reactions which impact negatively on patient adherence and clinical management. Accurate and complete documentation of signs and symptoms in the clinical notes is an important means of communication between healthcare providers, and an essential component in the management of antipsychotic-induced adverse drug reactions.

Aim: To determine the impact of an educational intervention on the incidence and extent of antipsychotic-induced adverse drug reaction documentation in patient medical records.

An international comparative public health analysis of sex trafficking of women and girls in eight cities: achieving a more effective health sector response.

Sex trafficking, trafficking for the purpose of forced sexual exploitation, is a widespread form of human trafficking that occurs in all regions of the world, affects mostly women and girls, and has far-reaching health implications. Studies suggest that up to 50 % of sex trafficking victims in the USA seek medical attention while in their trafficking situation, yet it is unclear how the healthcare system responds to the needs of victims of sex trafficking. To understand the intersection of sex trafficking and public health, we performed in-depth qualitative interviews among 277 antitrafficking stakeholders across eight metropolitan areas in five countries to examine the local context of sex trafficking.

Development of a community-based maternal, newborn and child emergency training package in South Sudan.

Objective: To develop an evidence-based maternal, newborn and child emergency training package for community-based frontline health workers (FHWs) in post-conflict South Sudan.

Methods: In partnership with the new Republic of South Sudan, a multimodal needs assessment was conducted through purposive sampling, involving key informant interviews, focus group discussions, provider knowledge assessments and facility surveys. Data were analyzed using traditional qualitative techniques and compared with existing training programmes and curricula.

Human trafficking: review of educational resources for health professionals.

Context: Human trafficking is an increasingly well-recognized human rights violation that is estimated to involve more than 2 million victims worldwide each year. The health consequences of this issue bring victims into contact with health systems and healthcare providers, thus providing the potential for identification and intervention. A robust healthcare response, however, requires a healthcare workforce that is aware of the health impact of this issue; educated about how to identify and treat affected individuals in a compassionate, culturally aware, and trauma-informed manner; and trained about how to collaborate efficiently with law enforcement, case management, and advocacy partners.

Evaluation of a novel training package among frontline maternal, newborn, and child health workers in South Sudan.

Objective: To develop, implement, and evaluate an evidence-based Maternal, Newborn, and Child Survival (MNCS) package for frontline health workers (FHWs) in South Sudan.

Methods: A multimodal needs assessment was conducted to develop a best-evidence package comprised of targeted training, pictorial checklists, and reusable equipment and commodities. Implementation utilized a training-of-trainers model.

Impact of adopting low sodium diet on biomarkers of inflammation and coagulation: a randomised controlled trial.

Background: A low sodium diet is an established intervention in the treatment of impaired renal function and hypertension which may modulate cardiovascular risk independent of recognised antihypertensive effects. Epidemiological data suggest that dietary sodium intake may be associated with systemic inflammation: another potential pathophysiological mechanism by which sodium intake may modify vascular disease.

Methods: We tested the hypothesis that adopting a low sodium diet may decrease biomarkers of systemic inflammation or coagulation using data from a randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial.

Laparoscopic right adrenalectomy for a large ganglioneuroma in a 12-year-old.

Introduction: Laparoscopic adrenalectomy is well established as the standard technique for all indications of adrenalectomy except adrenal carcinoma; however, some also consider large adrenal masses a relative contraindication. We present a video of a laparoscopic excision of a large ganglioneuroma and right adrenalectomy in a 12-year-old female.

Methods: Our patient was noted to have a right suprarenal mass on a computed tomography scan following complaints of back and abdominal pain.

The role of routine assays of serum amylase and lipase for the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain.

Introduction: We aimed to evaluate the role of routine measurements of serum amylase and lipase in the diagnosis of acute abdominal pain.

Patients And Methods: We identified all patients who had serum amylase and lipase assays over a 62-day period at a single university teaching hospital and reviewed their case notes.

Results: We excluded 58 of the 1598 patients on grounds of ineligibility (< 18 years of age and those transferred from other hospitals).

Open letter to the leader of academic medicine.

As their campaign comes to a close, ICRAM presents a challenge to academic medicine's invisible leaders

Data mining for correlations between diet and Crohn's disease activity.

Crohn's disease is a debilitating condition that affects the entire gastrointestinal tract and often requires aggressive and invasive therapies. Several studies have suggested dietary triggers for disease activity. We have created a web-based tool to allow participants to record both daily food intake and wellness (i.

Five futures for academic medicine.

The International Campaign to Revitalise Academic Medicine (ICRAM) considered current global instabilities and future drivers of change, and then created five scenarios of how academic medicine might look in 2025.

Surgical textbooks: past, present, and future.

The Sabiston Textbook of Surgery and other classic textbooks have been invaluable resources for generations of surgeons. Although they play an important role in medical education, printed textbooks often cannot meet the daily information needs of practicing surgeons because they are inaccessible, incomplete, unstructured, and out of date. Advances in communication technology have radically changed the creation and distribution of medical information.

Task-specific journal extracts for using the medical literature.

Clinicians and researchers use the medical literature in a variety of ways. The overwhelming volume of clinical journals necessitates tools to help healthcare professionals identify and employ relevant information. The structured abstract can facilitate browsing articles, but may not contain appropriate types of information or sufficient detail for all uses of the medical literature.

Parathyroid localization with high-resolution ultrasound and technetium Tc 99m sestamibi.

Hypothesis: High-resolution ultrasound and technetium Tc 99m sestamibi scanning can be used for preoperative localization of abnormal parathyroid glands in patients with hyperparathyroidism.

Design: Ultrasound and sestamibi scanning were performed in patients undergoing neck exploration for hyperparathyroidism. If the 2 scans agreed in identifying a single adenoma, and surgery confirmed the location of a single adenoma and an ipsilateral normal gland, a unilateral exploration was performed.

Changes to manuscripts during the editorial process: characterizing the evolution of a clinical paper.

Context: Biomedical manuscripts undergo substantive change as a result of the peer review and editorial revision processes.

Objective: To characterize quantitatively problems in manuscripts identified during peer review and changes made to address these problems.

Design And Setting: Descriptive analysis of manuscripts submitted to and articles published by the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Contextual models of clinical publications for enhancing retrieval from full-text databases.

Conventional methods for retrieving information from the medical literature are imprecise and inefficient. Information retrieval systems employ unmanageable indexing vocabularies or use full-text representations that overwhelm the user with irrelevant information. This paper describes a document representation designed to improve the precision of searching in textual databases without significantly compromising recall.

Optoelectronic evaluation of trunk deformity in scoliosis.

In this study, truncal deformity in patients with scoliosis was evaluated by circumferential scanning using an optoelectronic device (Optronic Torsograph, Anima Corp., Tokyo, Japan). This device generates cross-sectional skin surface topography at 10 axial levels to provide a three-dimensional representation of truncal shape.